Leto Atreides II
Leto Atreides II, also known as the God-Emperor, was the son of Paul Atreides and his Fremen concubine Chani, and the twin brother of Ghanima Atreides. After the death of his aunt, the regent Alia Atreides, Leto II ascended to become emperor of the Atreides Empire for approximately 3,500 standard years. Upbringing Leto II and his twin sister Ghanima were born on Arrakis during the reign of Emperor Paul Atreides. Their mother Chani died shortly after giving birth to the two children, due in large part to complications arising from large amounts of contraceptives that were surepticiously given to her by Paul's legal wife Iruland Corrino. Following Chani's death, and the apparent death of their father in the desert of Arrakis, Leto II and his sister became the legal responsibility of Paul's younger sister, the regent Alia Atreides. Though they were granted a fine upbringing, little attention was bestowed upon them by their aunt, who was possessed by Abomination and enthralled by her own power. Evolution on Arrakis In their teenaged years Leto II and Ghanima gained the attention of their paternal grandmother Jessica Atreides, who returned to Arrakis to inspect them as part of her obligations to the Bene Gesserit. While visiting Jessica sensed the latent power present in the twins, and realizing they would be a threat to the psychologically unstable Alia pressed her Fremen allies to help protect them. At this same time, Leto II's prescient powers began to emerge. Through visions and intuition he discovered the Golden Path that his father had earlier uncovered and begun to follow. However, unlike Paul Leto II accepted a greater understanding of the Golden Path's implications. He sensed not only its dangers but also the painful steps that must be taken to avoid it unraveling to the peril of humankind. After Leto II and Ghanima escaped a failed assassination attempt by House Corrino, the two split up, with Ghanima conditioned to believe her brother was dead. Leto II slipped into almost total anonymity, using the time and relative seclusion to build a foundation of power and knowledge through which the full impact of the Golden Path could be realized. To enact such steps required a strong (almost brutal) grip on power, and a longevity that would override the shortsightedness and impatience of man. Thus, after spending time amongst a variety of fringe Fremen elements, including The Preacher, Leto II accepted sand trout upon his body and began the conversion to a human-sandworm hybrid. Ascendancy to Emperor After his transformation had progressed to a sufficient stage, Leto II emerged from the desert and returned to Arrakeen to confront the possessed Alia and claim the throne of the empire. After Alia took her own life Leto II claimed the title of Emperor and promptly married his sister Ghanima, so as to consolidate his hegemony. The marriage was purely legal, and Ghanima accepted Farad'n Corrino as her exclusive concubine. Reign of Leto II Through the evolution of Leto II's body and powers (both prescience and access to possibly every dead human in history) he was rendered infertile and slowly evolved into what appeared a sandworm with a human face and appendages of limited strength and range. In return his lifespan was significantly increased, and during a reign of some 3,500 years Leto II guided humanity through a period of vulnerability and danger. Toward the end of his reign Leto II sensed the need for the next step on the Golden Path, and knew that his rule must end for further progress to occur. Thus using Sionna - a distant descendant of his sister Ghanima and her concubine Farad'n - and a Duncan Idaho ghola created by the scheming Tleilaxu, he sowed the seed of the Atreides genes for future generations. Additionally, he began the reversal of the terraforming on Arrakis, and witnessed the planet begin to revert back into a desert world. Ultimately Leto II lost his own life to his enemies when he fell into the Idaho River. This set into motion a chain of dramatic events that included The Scattering, and the re-emergence of the sandworm on Arrakis, which emerged from the sandtrout that escaped from Leto II's corpse. Legacy Within the Dune novels during and after his reign, Leto II is viewed as an extremely controversial figure. Many of the established power brokers who existed at the start of his rule were either destroyed or significantly weakened due to his draconian tactics and a monopoly on the Spice Melange. To his admirers Leto II was known as the God-Emperor, but to his enemies (including the Bene Gesserit) he was labeled The Tyrant.